Low-power Wireless Content Communication between Devices

ABSTRACT

Low-power wireless content communication techniques between devices are described. In one or more implementations, a method is described of controlling transfer of content to a wearable device from one or more computing devices over a lower power wireless communication connection. The method includes initiating a transfer of content to the wearable device over the lower power wireless communication connection to support playback of the content at the wearable device, in which the low power wireless communication connection does not support streaming of the content in an amount sufficient to support real time playback of the content at the wearable device. The transfer is managed of a plurality of portions of the content to the wearable device over the lower power wireless communication connection in which individual ones of the plurality of portions are transferred from the one or more computing device responsive to availability of the lower power wireless communication connection with the one or more computing devices. The plurality of portions of the content are caused to be stored locally at the wearable device.

PRIORITY APPLICATION

This Application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. Section 119(e) to U.S.Provisional Application 62/097,478, filed Dec. 29, 2014, and titled“Low-power Wireless Content Communication between Devices,” the entiredisclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

The popularity of wearable devices has continued to increase as theamount of functionality made available via these devices has increased.Additionally, this popularity has also followed increases in theportability of the devices. However, these factors often conflict witheach other.

For example, an increase in bandwidth supported by the wearable deviceto transfer data has a corresponding increase in an amount of powerconsumed by the wearable device, thereby limiting portability of thedevice due to frequent recharging of the device. Consequently,functionality available via the wearable device is often limited bythese factors, which also limits desirability of consumers in purchasingthe device due to the tradeoffs required in portability andfunctionality under conventional techniques.

SUMMARY

Low-power wireless content communication techniques between devices aredescribed. In one or more implementations, a method is described ofcontrolling transfer of content to a wearable device from one or morecomputing devices over a lower power wireless communication connection.The method includes initiating a transfer of content to the wearabledevice over the lower power wireless communication connection to supportplayback of the content at the wearable device, in which the low powerwireless communication connection does not support streaming of thecontent in an amount sufficient to support real time playback of thecontent at the wearable device. The transfer is managed of a pluralityof portions of the content to the wearable device over the lower powerwireless communication connection in which individual ones of theplurality of portions are transferred from the one or more computingdevice responsive to availability of the lower power wirelesscommunication connection with the one or more computing devices. Theplurality of portions of the content are caused to be stored locally atthe wearable device.

In one or more implementations, a wearable device includes a housingconfigured to be worn by a user, an output device to output content thatis secured to the housing, and a low power wireless communication devicedisposed within the housing. The low power wireless communication deviceis configured to form a low power wireless communication connection withone or more computing devices that does not support streaming of thecontent in an amount sufficient to support real time playback of thecontent by the output device. One or more modules are disposed withinthe housing and configured to manage transfer of a plurality of portionsof the content to the wearable device over the lower power wirelesscommunication connection in which individual ones of the plurality ofportions are transferred from the one or more computing devices.

In one or more implementations, a system includes a wearable devicehaving a low power wireless communication device configured to form alow power wireless communication connection that does not supportstreaming of audio in an amount sufficient to support real time playbackof the audio by an output device of the wearable device. The system alsoincludes a computing device communicatively coupled to the wearabledevice using the low power wireless connection and having the audiostored thereon. In this system, at least one of the wearable device orthe computing device are configured to control transfer of a pluralityof portions of the audio to the wearable device over the lower powerwireless communication connection responsive to availability of thelower power wireless communication connection.

This Summary introduces a selection of concepts in a simplified formthat are further described below in the Detailed Description. As such,this Summary is not intended to identify essential features of theclaimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid indetermining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanyingfigures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference numberidentifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. Theuse of the same reference numbers in different instances in thedescription and the figures may indicate similar or identical items.Entities represented in the figures may be indicative of one or moreentities and thus reference may be made interchangeably to single orplural forms of the entities in the discussion.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an environment in an example implementationthat is operable to employ low-power wireless communication techniquesdescribed herein.

FIG. 2 depicts a system in an example implementation in which control oftransfer of content over a low power wireless connection is managedresponsive to availability of the connection.

FIG. 3 depicts a system in an example implementation in which control oftransfer of content over a low power wireless connection is managedusing a plurality of computing devices to transfer the content.

FIG. 4 depicts a system in an example implementation in which control oftransfer of content over a low power wireless connection is managed by aservice backend of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which transfer is managed of portions of content overa low power wireless communication connection.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example system including various components of anexample device that can be implemented as any type of computing deviceas described and/or utilize with reference to FIGS. 1-5 to implementembodiments of the techniques described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Overview

Wearable devices are typically limited by the desired portability of thedevice, even more so than other portable computing devices such asmobile phones and tablets. Accordingly, wearable devices may be limitedby an amount of power available from a battery as well as by devicesthat consume this power, such as processing systems, memory, displaydevices, wireless communication devices, and so forth. For example,conventional low power wireless communication techniques do not supporttransmission of large items of content, such as audio or video toconserve battery resources.

Low-power wireless content communication techniques are described. Inone or more implementations, content such as audio or video iscommunicated to a wearable device over a low-power connection that doesnot have sufficient bandwidth to support real-time output by thewearable device. Examples of low-power wireless content communicationinclude Bluetooth® Low Energy, Wi-Fi Low Energy, 2.4 GHz wirelessprotocols, and so on. In order to accomplish this, transfer of portionsof the content is managed to send the portions when the wirelessconnection is available, e.g., in range of a computing device having oneor more of the portions.

Management may also include use of different computing devices, such asdevices associated with a user's account as part of a network servicesuch that different devices send different portions of the content whenavailable. This management is performable by the wearable device, thecomputing devices, and/or a service backend. In this way, small, lowpower wearable devices are provided with content that otherwise is notavailable to the devices over a wireless connection, thereby promotingportability of the device. Further discussion of these and otherexamples are described in the following sections and shown incorresponding figures.

In the following discussion, an example environment is first describedthat may employ the low-power wireless content communication techniquesdescribed herein. Example procedures are then described which may beperformed in the example environment as well as other environments.Consequently, performance of the example procedures is not limited tothe example environment and the example environment is not limited toperformance of the example procedures.

Example Environment

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an environment 100 in an exampleimplementation that is operable to employ low-power wireless contentcommunication techniques described herein. The illustrated environment100 includes a computing device 102, a wearable device 104, and aservice backend 106. Computing devices that implement these entities areconfigurable in a variety of ways.

The computing device 102, for instance, may be configured as a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer, a mobile device (e.g., assuming a handheldconfiguration such as a tablet or mobile phone as illustrated), and soforth. Thus, the computing device 102 ranges from full resource deviceswith substantial memory and processor resources (e.g., personalcomputers, game consoles) to a low-resource device with limited memoryand/or processing resources (e.g., mobile devices). Likewise, computingdevices that implement the service backend 106 are also configurable ina variety of ways, such as multiple servers of one or more server farmsas illustrated. Additionally, although single computing device examplesare shown, a computing device may be representative of a plurality ofdifferent devices as further described in relation to FIG. 6.

The wearable device 104 has a housing that is configured to be worn by auser. As such, the housing of the wearable device 104 may take a varietyof different forms, such as a ring, broach, pendant, configured to beworn on a wrist of a user as illustrated, glasses as also illustrated,and so forth. The wearable device 104 includes a battery 108 and alow-power wireless communication device 110 that are disposed within thehousing.

The low-power wireless communication device 110 is configured to supportwireless communication that consumes a low amount of power of thebattery 108. As such, however, protocols used by the low-power wirelesscommunication device 110 have limited bandwidth. As a result, theseprotocols do not support streaming of the content in an amount that issufficient to support real time playback of the content at the wearabledevice, e.g., of audio or video by output devices such as speakers or adisplay device of the wearable device 104.

Accordingly, the computing device 102, the wearable device 104, andservice backend 106 are illustrated as including respective transfermanager modules 112, 114, 116. The transfer manager modules 112, 114,116 are representative of functionality to manage transfer of content118 (e.g., audio or video) to the wearable device 104 for local storageon the wearable device 104. In this way, the wearable device 104 maystill conserve power of the battery 108 yet have access to expandedfunctionality through playback of the content 118 that was not otherwiseaccessible wirelessly by the wearable device 104.

This management is performable singly or in combination by one or moreof the transfer manager modules 112, 114, 116. Transfer manager module114 of the wearable device 104, for instance, may ping the computingdevice 102 over a wireless connection formed between the low powerwireless communication device 110 and a wireless communication device120 of the computing device 102 to obtain the content 118. In this way,the transfer manager module 114 of the wearable device 104 controls thetransfer of the content 118 in this instance.

In another instance, the transfer manager module 112 controls thetransfer of the content 118 to the wearable device 104, such as to sendportions of the content 118 when the wearable device 104 is in range ofthe lower power wireless connection. This may be performed to controltransfer of the content 116 using a single computing device 102 as shownin FIG. 2 and may even employ a plurality of computing devices as shownin FIG. 3.

The transfer manager module 116 of a service backend 106 may also beemployed to control the transfer of content 118. The service backend106, for instance, includes one or more services that are accessible toa user of the computing device 102 via a network 122. The servicesinclude storage 124 of content 118 that is provided to the computingdevice 102 via the network 102, roaming of user settings associated witha user's account, social network services, and so on. Accordingly, loginto the services may be performed to access content 118 that is to beconsumed by the computing device 102 and/or the wearable device 104 viaa user's account. Further, the transfer manager module 116 of theservice backend 106 is configurable to control how the content 118 istransferred to the wearable device 104, such as to select whichcomputing device 102 to employ and so forth, an example of which isshown and described in relation to FIG. 4.

In the illustrated example, due to limitations of the low power wirelesscommunication device 110 the service backend 106 is not directlyaccessible to the wearable device 104, but is directly accessible to thecomputing device 102, e.g., via the Internet. As such, content 118 iscommunicated from the service backend 106 to the computing device 102via the network 122, and then over a low power wireless connectionillustrated through use of an arrow between the computing device 102 andthe wearable device 104 in this example. Other examples are alsocontemplated without departing from the spirit and scope thereof.Further discussion of low-power wireless content communicationtechniques is described in the following and shown in correspondingfigures.

FIG. 2 depicts a system 200 in an example implementation in whichcontrol of transfer of content over a low power wireless connection ismanaged responsive to availability of the connection. The systemincludes the computing device 102 and the wearable device 104 of FIG. 1.In this example, the content 118 is divided into a plurality ofportions, examples of which are illustrated as a first content portion202 to an N content portion 204. These portions are transferred in thisexample responsive to a detection of availability of the low powerwireless communication connection between the computing device 102 andthe wearable device 104.

For example, the computing device 102 is illustrated as included at acenter of four concentric circles that illustrate a wireless rangesupported by the low power wireless communication connection.Accordingly, when the wearable device 104 is disposed at a location 206that is within this range, the first content portion 202 of the content118 is transferred to the wearable device 104 as illustrated by thearrow in the figure.

However, this transfer ceases when the wearable device 104 is disposedat a location 208 that is outside this range, and then resumes when thewearable device 104 is disposed at a location 210 back within the rangeof the connection as also illustrated by inclusion of an arrow or lackthereof in the figure. In this way, the different portions of thecontent 118 (e.g., first content portion 202 through N content portion204) are provided automatically and without user intervention based onavailability of the connection.

This transfer, as previously described, is manageable in a variety ofways. The transfer manager module 114 of the wearable device 104, forinstance, may form requests for portions of the content 118, e.g., may“ping” the computing device 102. Thus, when the computing device 102 isin range, the transfer manager module 112 of the computing device 102sends one or more of the portions of the content 118 over the lowerpower wireless communication connection. In one or more implementations,the transfer manager module 114 requests specific portions of thecontent 118, such as to request the N content portion 204 due to aprevious transfer of the first content portion 202.

In another instance, the transfer manager module 112 of the computingdevice 102 detects availability of the wearable device 104 via the lowpower wireless communication connection and controls the transfer of thefirst through N content portions 202, 204. Therefore, the transfer ofthe portions of the content 118 is controllable by the computing device102 or the wearable device 104 and thus expands functionality availablevia the wearable device 104, such as to function as a personal assistantthrough playback of audio that includes reminders, notifications, and soforth. The transfer may also be performed using a plurality of computingdevices, an example of which is described in the following and is shownin a corresponding figure.

FIG. 3 depicts a system 300 in an example implementation in whichcontrol of transfer of content over a low power wireless connection ismanaged using a plurality of computing devices to transfer the content.This system 300 includes the computing device 102 and the wearabledevice 104 of FIG. 2 as having respective transfer manager modules 112,114, and the computing device 102 including content 118 having firstthrough N content portions 202, 204.

The system 300 also includes another computing device 302 having atransfer manager module 304 and the content 118 having first through Ncontent portions 202, 204. In this example, the wearable device 104receives portions of the content that are transferred using differentcomputing devices. A user, for instance, may have access to bothcomputing devices 102, 302, such as associated with a user accountmaintained by the service backend 106 of FIG. 1. Accordingly, thetransfer manager modules 112, 114, 304 are configured in this instanceto leverage different availabilities of low power wireless communicationconnections between the computing devices 102, 302, and the wearabledevice 104.

The user, for instance, wears the wearable device 104 at a home wherecomputing device 102 is available to transfer the first content portion202. The user then leaves for work, which causes the transfer to cease.Once at work, computing device 302 is available to complete the transferof the content 118 through communication of the N content portion 204.As before, this management is controllable by the transfer managermodule 114 of the wearable device 104 (e.g., to request particularportions of the content 118), by the transfer manager modules 112, 304of the computing devices 102, 302, or a combination of the two. Controlof the transfer is also performable by the service backend 106, anexample of which is described in the following and shown in acorresponding figure.

FIG. 4 depicts a system 400 in an example implementation in whichcontrol of transfer of content over a low power wireless connection ismanaged by a service backend of FIG. 1. This example follows theprevious example in which a plurality of computing devices 102, 302 areused to transfer content 118 to the wearable device 104. In thisexample, however, control of this transfer is managed by a servicebackend 106.

The service backend 106, for instance, may monitor user login to auser's account through computing device 302, such as part of a socialnetwork service, to roam user settings, e.g., user preferences, and soon. As part of this login, the transfer manager module 116 detects thatthe wearable device 104 is communicatively coupled to the computingdevice 302. The transfer manager module 116 in this instance continuestransfer of the content 118, such as to communicate N content portion204 to the computing device 302 for communication to the wearable device104 to supplement a previously communicated first content portion 202from computing device 102.

Thus, the service backend 106 in this case distributes the first throughN content portions 202, 204 to computing devices 102, 302 to causetransfer to the wearable device 104. A pull model is also contemplatedin which the wearable device 104 pings the computing device 302 toobtain the N content portion 204 identified in a request formed by thewearable device 104.

As described above, the transfer manager modules 112, 114, 116 areconfigurable to support a variety of different low energy wirelessprotocols that save power yet still support transfer of content 118 suchas audio and video. This is usable to expand functionality available viasmall, low-power wearable devices 104, such to function as a personalassistant. Further discussion of these are other examples is describedin relation to the following procedure.

Example Procedures

The following discussion describes low-power wireless contentcommunication techniques that may be implemented utilizing thepreviously described systems and devices. Aspects of each of theprocedures may be implemented in hardware, firmware, or software, or acombination thereof. The procedures are shown as a set of blocks thatspecify operations performed by one or more devices and are notnecessarily limited to the orders shown for performing the operations bythe respective blocks. In portions of the following discussion,reference will be made to FIGS. 1-4.

FIG. 5 depicts a procedure 500 in an example implementation in whichtransfer is managed of portions of content over a low power wirelesscommunication connection. A transfer of content to the wearable deviceis initiated over the lower power wireless communication connection tosupport playback of the content at the wearable device, in which the lowpower wireless communication connection does not support streaming ofthe content in an amount sufficient to support real time playback of thecontent at the wearable device (block 502). As previously described, thetransfer may be initiated by the computing device 102, the wearabledevice 104, and even a service backend 106.

The transfer is managed of a plurality of portions of the content to thewearable device over the lower power wireless communication connectionin which individual ones of the plurality of portions are transferredfrom the one or more computing device responsive to availability of thelower power wireless communication connection with the one or morecomputing devices (block 504). This availability may be based on whetherthe wearable device 104 is within range of the low power wirelesscommunication connection with the computing device 102, which devicesare available to perform the transfer as shown in FIG. 3, and so forth.

The plurality of portions of the content are caused to be stored locallyat the wearable device (block 506). The transfer manager modules 112,114, 116, for instance, are configured to cause transfer of firstthrough N content portions 202, 204 of the content 118 such that thewearable device 104 is configured to store the content 118 locally onthe device, e.g., in memory. Playback is performed of the plurality ofportions of the content from the storage (block 508). Playback, forinstance, may be configured by the content to occur responsive to anevent (e.g., a reminder), when initiated by a user (e.g., playback of adesired song), and so forth.

Example Electronic Device

FIG. 6 illustrates various components of an example electronic device600 that can be implemented as a wearable haptic and touch communicationdevice, a wearable haptic device, a non-wearable computing device havinga touch-sensitive display, and/or a remote computing device as describedwith reference to any of the previous FIGS. 1-5. The device may beimplemented as one or combination of a fixed or mobile device, in anyform of a consumer, computer, portable, user, communication, phone,navigation, gaming, audio, messaging, Web browsing, paging, mediaplayback, and/or other type of electronic device, such as the wearabledevice 104 described with reference to FIG. 1.

Electronic device 600 includes communication transceivers 602 thatenable wired and/or wireless communication of device data 604, such asreceived data over a low power wireless protocol. Other examplecommunication transceivers include NFC transceivers, WPAN radioscompliant with various IEEE 802.15 (Bluetooth™) standards, WLAN radioscompliant with any of the various IEEE 802.11 (WiFi™) standards, WWAN(3GPP-compliant) radios for cellular telephony, wireless metropolitanarea network (WMAN) radios compliant with various IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX™)standards, and wired local area network (LAN) Ethernet transceivers.

Electronic device 600 may also include one or more data input ports 606via which any type of data, media content, and/or inputs can bereceived, such as user-selectable inputs, messages, music, televisioncontent, recorded video content, and any other type of audio, video,and/or image data received from any content and/or data source. Datainput ports 606 include USB ports, coaxial cable ports, and other serialor parallel connectors (including internal connectors) for flash memory,DVDs, CDs, and the like. These data input ports may be used to couplethe electronic device to components, peripherals, or accessories such askeyboards, microphones, or cameras.

Electronic device 600 of this example includes processor system 608(e.g., any of application processors, microprocessors,digital-signal-processors, controllers, and the like), or a processorand memory system (e.g., implemented in a SoC), which process (i.e.,execute) computer-executable instructions to control operation of thedevice. Processor system 608 (processor(s) 608) may be implemented as anapplication processor, embedded controller, microcontroller, and thelike. A processing system may be implemented at least partially inhardware, which can include components of an integrated circuit oron-chip system, digital-signal processor (DSP), application-specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), field-programmable gate array (FPGA), acomplex programmable logic device (CPLD), and other implementations insilicon and/or other hardware. Alternatively or in addition, theelectronic device can be implemented with any one or combination ofsoftware, hardware, firmware, or fixed logic circuitry that isimplemented in connection with processing and control circuits, whichare generally identified at 610 (processing and control 610). Althoughnot shown, electronic device 600 can include a system bus, crossbar, ordata transfer system that couples the various components within thedevice. A system bus can include any one or combination of different busstructures, such as a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus,a universal serial bus, and/or a processor or local bus that utilizesany of a variety of bus architectures.

Electronic device 600 also includes one or more memory devices 612 thatenable data storage, examples of which include random access memory(RAM), non-volatile memory (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory,EPROM, EEPROM, etc.), and a disk storage device. Memory device(s) 612provide data storage mechanisms to store the device data 604, othertypes of information and/or data, and various device applications 614(e.g., software applications). For example, operating system 616 can bemaintained as software instructions within memory device 612 andexecuted by processors 608.

Electronic device 600 also includes audio and/or video processing system618 that processes audio data and/or passes through the audio and videodata to audio system 620 and/or to display system 622 (e.g., spectacles,displays on computing bracelet as shown in FIG. 1, and so on) to outputcontent 118. Audio system 620 and/or display system 622 may include anydevices that process, display, and/or otherwise render audio, video,display, and/or image data. Display data and audio signals can becommunicated to an audio component and/or to a display component via anRF (radio frequency) link, S-video link, HDMI (high-definitionmultimedia interface), composite video link, component video link, DVI(digital video interface), analog audio connection, or other similarcommunication link. In some implementations, audio system 620 and/ordisplay system 622 are external components to electronic device 600.Alternatively or additionally, display system 622 can be an integratedcomponent of the example electronic device, such as part of anintegrated touch interface.

CONCLUSION

Although the invention has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarilylimited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specificfeatures and acts are disclosed as example forms of implementing theclaimed invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of controlling transfer of content to awearable device from one or more computing devices over a lower powerwireless communication connection, the method comprising: initiating atransfer of content to the wearable device over the lower power wirelesscommunication connection to support playback of the content at thewearable device, in which the low power wireless communicationconnection does not support streaming of the content in an amountsufficient to support real time playback of the content at the wearabledevice; managing the transfer of a plurality of portions of the contentto the wearable device over the lower power wireless communicationconnection in which individual ones of the plurality of portions aretransferred from the one or more computing device responsive toavailability of the lower power wireless communication connection withthe one or more computing devices; and causing the plurality of portionsof the content to be stored locally at the wearable device.
 2. A methodas described in claim 1, wherein the low power wireless communicationconnection complies with a Bluetooth Low Energy Protocol, a Wi-Fi LowEnergy Protocol, or a 2.4 GHz wireless protocol.
 3. A method asdescribed in claim 1, wherein the initiating of the transfer isperformed at the wearable device or at the one or more computingdevices.
 4. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the managing isperformed at least in part by the wearable device by requesting thetransfer of individual ones of the plurality of portions from the one ormore computing devices that have been identified by the wearable deviceas part of the request.
 5. A method as described in claim 4, wherein afirst said portion of the content is obtained from a first saidcomputing device and a second said portion of the content is obtainedfrom a second said computing device.
 6. A method as described in claim1, wherein the managing is performed at least in part through use of aservice backend that controls which of the plurality of portions aretransferred by which of the one or more computing devices.
 7. A methodas described in claim 6, wherein the service backend is not directlyaccessible by the wearable device over a network connection and theservice backend is directly accessible by the one or more computingdevices.
 8. A method as described in claim 6, wherein the one or morecomputing devices obtain at least one of the portions of the contentfrom the service backend.
 9. A method as described in claim 1, whereinthe managing is performed at least in part through the one or morecomputing devices to control which of the plurality of portions aretransferred to the wearable device.
 10. A method as described in claim1, wherein the wearable device is configured to be worn as a broach,necklace, ring, or on a wrist.
 11. A method as described in claim 1,wherein the content is audio or video.
 12. A wearable device comprising:a housing configured to be worn by a user; an output device to outputcontent, the output device secured to the housing; a low power wirelesscommunication device disposed within the housing and configured to forma low power wireless communication connection with one or more computingdevices that does not support streaming of the content in an amountsufficient to support real time playback of the content by the outputdevice; and one or more modules disposed within the housing andconfigured to manage transfer of a plurality of portions of the contentto the wearable device over the lower power wireless communicationconnection in which individual ones of the plurality of portions aretransferred from the one or more computing device.
 13. A wearable deviceas described in claim 12, wherein the transfer is managed at least inpart by the wearable device by requesting the transfer of individualones of the plurality of portions from the computing device that havebeen identified by the wearable device as part of the request.
 14. Awearable device as described in claim 12, wherein the housing isconfigured to be worn as a broach, necklace, ring, or on a wrist.
 15. Awearable device as described in claim 12, wherein the content is audioor video.
 16. A wearable device as described in claim 12, wherein thelow power wireless communication connection complies with a BluetoothLow Energy Protocol, a Wi-Fi Low Energy Protocol, or a 2.4 GHz wirelessprotocol.
 17. A system comprising: a wearable device having a low powerwireless communication device configured to form a low power wirelesscommunication connection that does not support streaming of audio in anamount sufficient to support real time playback of the audio by anoutput device of the wearable device; and a computing devicecommunicatively coupled to the wearable device using the low powerwireless connection and having the audio stored thereon, in which atleast one of the wearable device or the computing device are configuredto control transfer of a plurality of portions of the audio to thewearable device over the lower power wireless communication connectionresponsive to availability of the lower power wireless communicationconnection.
 18. A system as described in claim 17, wherein the wearabledevice is configured to be worn as a broach, necklace, ring, or on awrist.
 19. A system as described in claim 17, wherein the low powerwireless communication connection complies with a Bluetooth Low EnergyProtocol, a Wi-Fi Low Energy Protocol, or a 2.4 GHz wireless protocol.20. A system as described in claim 17, wherein the control is performedat least in part by the wearable device by requesting the transfer ofindividual ones of the plurality of portions from the computing devicethat have been identified by the wearable device as part of the request.